SteveShannon

Exactly- you don’t (and shouldn’t) need a bunch of radio theory to use GMRS, but you have agreed to follow the rules (cryptically written though they may be) so a licensee needs to know and understand them.

Mine make me look like I have an different kind of social life: But I’m really not even looking to avoid ads. I just want to be able to support the site at a level that I’m comfortable with.

The Mike Holt videos are excellent on YouTube. He understands and clearly explains the actual requirements of the National Electrical Code as seen by a Professional Engineer . Here’s one of his more recent videos discussing antenna grounding: https://youtu.be/WRv8AKVAfyc Ward Silver does a very good job of explaining it from the perspective of an amateur radio installation. In fact, he wrote the book for ARRL on Grounding and Bonding. Here’s one of his videos: https://youtu.be/WizvvhQgtoA The short answer is that yes, your tower, antenna, and coax may share a ground. In fact, their grounds are required to be bonded (connected) to each other and to your electrical system ground. Here’s how I understand it: A four legged tower would have a ground electrode for each leg. Then, all four ground electrodes would be bonded to each other with a ground conductor ring and a sufficiently sized solid ground conductor would then run from that ring to the electrical system ground which is connected to your electrical panel. The bonding is as important to the grounding because it prevents differences in ground potential (between ground electrodes) from creating currents that flow through your radio equipment. You really want those currents to flow through the ground conductors or bonding conductors rather than through your radio or your body. Then, where your coax enters the house, it passes through a lightning protector. The lightning protector is connected to a ground or ground plate, which is bonded to the electrical system ground. Inside your house, all of your devices (radios, power supplies, amplifiers, etc.) are connected to a single ground point (frequently a copper bar), which is also bonded to the electrical system ground with a decent sized conductor. Steve

Unfortunately, there are dicks everywhere. That’s offensive (or at least should be offensive) to all of us. Unless listening is required because you need situational awareness of some kind, I would just block that channel from being scanned. If it continues, record it and turn it in to the FCC, but chances are they won’t do anything about it. If you feel personally threatened (not just offended) then call the police.

Amen! We had a case of P&B control relays which were designated to be used in automating a hydroelectric plant which we had to replace because mice urinated on them. Plus, a lot of times when an electronic device is submerged the water has contaminants in it that become deposits as the water evaporates. All that must be cleaned off in order to assess damage and possibly restore functionality.

Some of what you posted is accurate, but some is distorted and some is just plain wrong. Although GMRS is used by people as a short range radio communication medium, at least for the people I know in radio, it's not an alternative to ham radio. It's just a way to communicate. I use GMRS for one reason only, to stay in communications with my friends when I'm out chasing rockets. Someday, I'll also use it to talk to my grandkids. I've given them FRS radios to play with. I don't ever leave my GMRS radio on so I can have conversations with people. Even when I use my GMRS radio for rocketry I don't have conversations. I simply use to to provide directions or notify someone of an impending launch. But there are a lot of other reasons I am a ham radio operator. Primarily I am interested in the technology and learning more about it. I learn about antennas, digital modes, propagation, etc. Occasionally, I listen to other people talking and sometimes I join in. You're wrong also about ham radio losing participants. The growth is not phenomenal, but it is positive. I didn't check on CB. At the end of 2018, the total number of hams in the US was 755,430, following steady growth for the previous several years. At the end of 2022, the number of hams in the US was 768,942, 13,512 more than in 2018. I didn't find the statistics for 2019 - 2022, these were the easiest statistics I found. The fact is the GMRS is growing, not because ham radio is shrinking, but because it has changed into something that attracts more people. Perhaps repeaters are part of that. Certainly, extremely lenient licensing is a driver. GMRS is suffering growing pains. To blame those pains on any other service misses the mark. To change the other services to fix GMRS is ludicrous. You might just as well suggest that GMRS licenses go back up to $70 and for a shorter term, or implement theory and regulation testing to slow down the growth, or prohibit networking repeaters. Or issue a test to weed out sad hams. You cannot blame the problems in GMRS on amateur radio. Nor can amateur radio problems be blamed on GMRS. I suppose that means I should GFM. That also isn't going to happen.

So the problem with GMRS is that too many hams are rag-chewing on it? ?

I think there are about 100,000 DMR users in the United States, which appear to mostly use repeaters or hotspots in the 70 cm UHF band. There are fewer C4FM users and D-STAR users who also concentrate their activities on the 70 cm band. Plus there’s probably quite a few who do analog. I don’t think you’ll be successful in a petition.

I’m writing to suggest creating lower cost ways to support this site. I would gladly pay $20 per year. I think you might get more subscribers at that level, even without the benefits that a $50 subscriber receives. To me, $50 is just too much, a psychological hurdle, but I would like to help.

Or maybe we just leave things the way they are. Maybe all three services mentioned (CB, GMRS, ARS) are simply evolving into their next versions, for better or worse. I really liked your post and agree with almost all of it. A lot of people are making GMRS into a hobby, but unlike amateur radio, a hobby they can do without convincing their family members to become hams. I don’t see how Amateur Radio could change to accommodate that.

There are 26 repeaters listed for Wisconsin, with a few in Milwaukee and one in Waukesha that looks like it’s well within range of you. It’s listed as Armored 1 in the list of repeaters and requires permission to join. I used the advanced search facility to look at all repeaters in the state. https://mygmrs.com/repeaters

Unfortunately, Gman1971 hasn’t posted since July 3, 2022. I hope you get a response.

No problem at all. Many radios have the ability to scan for tones, to determine which tones are used. Notarubicon has a video that shows how to do that. I don’t have your radio, so I cannot promise you that your radio does it. You really only need the transmit (also referred to as the repeater input tone) to use a repeater (assuming you have permission of course.) Obviously you already receive the repeater in your area or you’ve heard some people talking on simplex. The offset for GMRS is almost always 5 MHz. GMRS repeaters always receive in the 467 MHz band and transmit on the 462 MHz band. So, whatever frequency you receive them on, (462.???) you will almost certainly need to transmit on 467.??? where ??? represents the decimal part of the frequency. Most GMRS radios have that offset built in when you choose the repeater channels, so you may only need to program the transmit tone. You don’t mention where you are, but posting that might get someone here to help you learn what repeaters are in your area. Did you look in the Repeaters section of this website? It’s probably the most comprehensive listing of GMRS repeaters anywhere.

I don’t know how to disassemble an 805g case, but whenever a piece of electronics gear gets immersed it’s important to remove the batteries, disassemble it, rinse it in fresh water (if you know what you’re doing), or clean it with alcohol on a q-tip (while protecting any components that have ports, like beepers, microphones, speakers, barometric sensors, etc), and then raising its temperature slightly until it’s completely dry. Overnight eight or ten inches from a standard desk lamp works well. Closer is not always better. Even placing a circuit board on top of a power supply or electronic device that feels warm to the touch can do it. Circuit boards and most of their components are not usually damaged by water per se, but powering up a circuit while moisture and dirt are present can really foul things up. However, some of the components on a circuit board might be permanently damaged by getting wet. It’s important to avoid getting them wet. They’re the ones I mentioned above, the beepers, microphones, speakers, barometric sensors, etc.

Lately, there has seemed to be a large number of folks asking for initial configuration files because they have written to their radio and now their radio is not working as expected. In some cases the result is a bricked radio. I don’t mean this to be critical; it’s exactly the kind of mistake I have made in the past. So, I would like to remind everyone who is getting a new radio to always, and I mean always, read and store your initial configuration using whatever software you choose to use. Save it with the date you read it and the name of the software you used to read it. Also, if you’re going to flash your firmware, make a backup beforehand AND after. Second, don’t change software in the midst of configuration. It might work just fine, but it might not. In other words, don’t read your configuration to a file with one software and then try to write a new configuration using that file but a different software. There may be something in that file that makes it incompatible jumping between software programs. Finally, as a last resort, I wonder if we could create a depository of initial configuration files, files that are pristine, just as shipped from the factory. If so, where on this site is a good place? I can contribute a Radioddity DB20G initial file. Steve

If the CPS for a radio supports importation of a CSV file you might be able to export from Chirp to a CSV file (assuming that Chirp exports), and then reformat the file to work with your CPS.

Good point.

If you were using a handheld you should not expect that people can hear you at a distance of 50 miles. It’s not unusual to be able to receive farther than a handheld can transmit. There’s no secret to range: height, good antenna, line of sight, and power.

The updated model of the RT97, which is the RT97S, has an external port for connecting an external controller. It may be possible to connect to it remotely, using a WiFi device. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find updated documentation that describes the added functionality of the RT97S; I can only find downloads for the RT97.

I might be the exception here. Although I’ve been in love with the idea of talking to people half a world away since the Man from UNCLE show, and I intended to become a ham radio operator since the days of the Benton Harbor lunchbox radios (portable 6 m and 2 m transceivers made by Heathkit) I never got around to it. But I’ve been using GMRS radios for rocketry for a long time. A little over a year ago I decided to get legal and I finally bought a GMRS license. That got me interested in the technology again and a year ago I took my ham radio tests and got my Extra license. I don’t see competition between the two except on the forums. My ham radio friends are all interested in GMRS radios as well and I guess I am just lucky enough that I haven’t run across sad hams in person or on the local airwaves. For me, they’re complementary. My grandkids have FRS radios. I can give one of my GMRS radios to my wife. And who knows, someday maybe my kids or grandkids will want to know more about radio.

Regardless of any previous interactions you’ve had with the OP, it’s a politely presented and reasonable question. If you don’t have an answer or don’t wish to comment, that’s easily done without being negative.

Welcome to GMRS! The Notarubicon YouTube channel has videos that answers this exact question, including showing how to set Baofeng uv5R radios and repeater basics, but I’ll try to give a short description here that might help you. It won’t be as entertaining as Randy’s videos, but I hope it will give you a foundation. Transmit and receive frequency Repeaters use full duplex communications, meaning that at exactly the same time they are receiving a transmission they are transmitting it at a frequency that’s typically 5 MHz lower. Usually repeaters are listed by the frequencies they transmit on. So, you might find a “550” repeater that’s listed as 462.550 MHz. In order for you to use that repeater you would have to transmit on 467.550 MHz and listen on 462.550 MHz. Different radios program differently. Some require that you explicitly set the transmission frequency in one column and the receive frequency in another. I think that’s what your radio does. Tones The second part of this is tones, which can be the single most confusing aspect. Repeaters are usually listed with Input and Output tones. You transmit the repeater Input tone and you receive the repeater Output tone. Most repeaters have tone activated access. That’s their Input tone. They will only re-transmit signals that they receive using the correct tone. And, to make things worse there are two major tone types, DCS and CTCSS which are not compatible with each other. If the repeater you wish to access has an Input tone, you must program your radio to transmit that tone whenever you’re transmitting to the repeater. For instance, the repeater here that I use requires an input CTCSS tone of 100 Hz. Most repeaters also have an Output tone, which is the tone they transmit when they are relaying a transmission. It’s important to understand that a receiver that has no tones set receives everything. So, if you’re listening to a transmitter that has a 100 Hz CTCSS output, but you haven’t set a receive tone, your receiver will still reproduce the transmission. But, if you have the wrong tone set, they your receiver will disregard the signal. It receives it, but it doesn’t break squelch so you can hear it. For that reason I recommend that you leave the receive tone blank until you have everything working. Hope this helps! As I run across them on YouTube I’ll include links to videos that might help you:

I don’t know, but I’m always game to speculate. Could it be as simple as the fact that they operate in an area where there is more access to a GMRS repeater?

Up above WRVD377 posted the following: May have missed it was me (wrvd377 in a post above) that posted part of an email reply. Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 9:23 PM Hello, We have plan to make 40W GMRS analog repeater, but the available date is not known yet, once we have update, will public to our SNS, you will see that. If this repeater you plan to use in which application scenario? Like farm, or factory, or ? Thanks! Thanks and Regards, Elsa Jin (Customer Manager) Web:www.retevis.com So based on what I was wrote, 40W is coming some time. No reference to any other product or timeline. Trying not to post too much, but they clearly wanted to know uses cases.

You turn it off, then turn it on while holding the top button on the left, then select GMRS.